What Was the Edenton Tea Party?

Many American schoolchildren learn at a young age the relevance of tea to the American Revolution, specifically in relation to the Boston Tea Party, in which colonists dumped hundreds of chests full of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest the recently passed Tea Act of 1773. 

This protest was driven by cries of “No taxation without representation” and would prove to be a pivotal moment leading up to the Revolutionary War and American independence. 

On Oct. 25, 1774, nine months after the Boston Tea Party, 51 women gathered for a tea party in the coastal North Carolina town of Edenton to voice their support for the ongoing tea boycott, rallying around the cause of “no taxation without representation.”

While the Edenton Tea Party would not play as prevailing a role in American history books as the Boston Tea Party that preceded it, the gathering did mark a remarkable milestone in the history of political organizing in America: the first recorded women’s political demonstration in America. 

The event is the inspiration for Liberty Steeped: Where Tea Meets Rebellion, an event scheduled for Aug. 2 at the Charlotte Museum of History that will discuss the Edenton Tea Party and the vital but oft-overlooked role of women in the American Revolution.

Katelynn Hatton, editor of the North Carolina Colonial Records Project at the NC Office of Archives and History, will be the guest speaker at Saturday’s event. Her research was used as the basis for, Within Our Power: The Story of the Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party, a children’s book about the historic event published by UNC Press in October 2024. 

“Liberty Steeped explores the powerful role women and tea played in the fight for American independence,” said Kendall McGeorge, public programs director for the Charlotte Museum of History in a release announcing the event. “You’ll learn about the brave act of resistance known as the Edenton Tea Party of 1774, one of the earliest organized political actions by American women. Tea was more than comfort for these patriot women — it was a catalyst for community and revolutionary ideas.”

While the male participants in the Boston Tea Party went to great lengths to hide their identities in the interest of evading punishment, the women of the Edenton Tea Party attached their names to a document voicing their support for a boycott of all British tea and cloth received after September 10, 1774 — a boycott that had recently been announced by the provincial deputies of North Carolina. 

The women of Edenton signed an agreement saying they were “determined to give memorable proof of their patriotism” and could not be “indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country . . . it is a duty that we owe, not only to our near and dear connections . . . but to ourselves,” according to the NC History Project.

The 51 women of the Edenton Tea Party reportedly gathered at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth King, organized by neighbor Penelope Barker. Ansley Herring Wegner writes in NCPedia, however, that the King household could never have hosted 50+ people and many of the names were later added to the document drawn up at the actual tea party. 

The women had authority on the subject. With tea playing such a large role in social gatherings at the time — one that was adopted from Britain’s longstanding tradition — women were often in charge of putting together such gatherings. 

At the gathering, the 51 women of the Edenton Ladies’ Patriotic Guild drank tea made from mulberry leaves, lavender, and other local herbs, according to the National Women’s History Museum. The letter was reported widely and praised in the Colonial press, leading many women in the 13 colonies to follow suit in boycotting British tea. 

Barker would remain defiant into the Revolutionary War, reportedly cutting the reins of her horse from the hands of a British officer who was attempting to steal them from her barn in Edenton during the war, according to Maggie Mitchell’s book, Treasonous Tea: The Edenton Tea Party of 1774.

It should be noted that, as is the case with so many Revolutionary War heroes, these women’s views on who deserved the liberty and freedom they fought for were narrow. 

Barker, for example, ruled over multiple plantations that she inherited following the deaths of three consecutive husbands, overseeing dozens of enslaved people and renting them out to others as a primary source of income for herself. 

Tickets to Liberty Steeped: Where Tea Meets Rebellion run $30 for members or $40 for non-members. Visitors will enjoy tea service, light fare and entry into the event raffle.

Read more: Rethinking the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (2021)